Daily Independent (Lagos)
Tony Ezimakor
13 October 2008
Abuja — Sierra Leone coach, Mohammed Kanu, has admitted Super Eagles superiority over his Leone Stars, which he said ranks among the best in the world.
He told reporters after the 4-1 drubbing at the main bowl of the Abuja National Stadium, Saturday that his lads swam against the tide trying to match the superior skills of the array of talented players that make up the senior national team.
Kanu, who had boasted of his team's readiness to stop the Eagles at home having had a good run in their 0-1 loss to the Eagles in Freetown, said his boys completely lost whatever ideas they had after the first two goals of the encounter.
"Know before we came that it was going to be difficult because Nigeria is one of the best team in Africa even in the world as you can see with the array of talents. You deserve to win for sure, we didn't play well. We were totally out of position and in the second half, we were out of courage because the zeal was there. Yeah! Zeal, because you know you are playing a team like Nigeria and you look at your bench and you discover that you don't have a strong bench, you are bound to lose ideas."
He said the situation his team faced was made worse by the loss of four key players in his relatively new squad before the trip to the Nigerian capital city.
"Before we came to Nigeria, I lost four key players to injury. There was nothing I could do but to pick from the 20 players we are working with. When you lose four regular players, the team has almost collapsed and Sierra Leone is a small country; we don't have the kind of talents you have. So, I just have to use what I have got."
Nigeria scored five goals, one for the visitors, courtesy of a perfect strike by stand-in-Captain, Joseph Yobo. But three quick goals by Obinna Nsofor, Osaze Odemwegie and Chidi Odiah lifted the spirit of the fans after returning Christian Obodo had opened scores for the Eagles.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Daily Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
